We are off to market.... Waiting at the airport... On the adventure is John (papa/babysitter), Sally, Lawry, mom, Teague and I. I nervous as usual and I miss having Carolyn. She is my rock... Keeps me grounded and out of my head. I can get so self conscious it is silly!!
Have a great day'
XO
Valori
The Stitchin' Post had a birthday party last night....it was our 35th. I was almost 2 when mom opened the shop. Now, I have kids running around the shop like my brother and I used to. Wow....I remember playing in the shop and running around it was just a lot smaller.
What a great evening of friends and family...
Our aspen trees are finally showing signs of spring....the weather is getting warmer and I am just dying to get the garden planted. Living in Central Oregon it is best not to plant your garden until the end of May. We may get to the 70's in the day but it can still freeze at night. The weeds are doing great and they seem to be frost resistant.....I have to get out there and take care of them before I can plant. This weekend should be nice weather and we are going to take on the weeds....
Have a great weekend!
XOXO
Valori
Happy Mother's Day to all the lovely mama's out there!!! I hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday. I had a great - very mellow - day with the fam....can't complain there wasn't much drama and there wasn't any work! I should say very little drama with a 2 year old.
I love to have a photo of my kids on mother's day...I find that with three kids it is a lot harder to get everyone performing...but it was not too bad. Teague didn't like the wind so he kept putting his head down and the girls...well, they were themselves!
For my mom - the woman who has everything that she wants or needs - on Mother's day I painted her a bird....another painting for her collection.
Not the best photo of the painting but I had to take a quick one before I wrapped it.
This week is it before market so we are sending off boxes of booth decorations and handouts. It will be good to get everything done and just go to the show. I will share all the projects that have been made out of nest...soon!!
Have a great day!!
XOXOX
Valori
Well, I think that I have everything off my plate and to print... Gosh I hope so! Only 2 weeks to market.
In the mean time... Teague is sitting up. A few moments of lost balance - especially if he looks up - but for the most part on his own. Wow, time has really flown with him. I have a feeling that crawling is not far away!
Time to get the girls ready for bed!
XO
Valori
Carolyn and I had another photoshot on Friady. It was sunny but really windy with a bitter chill. We did gat some great photos. Now I am just getting everything together to send off to the printer.
Have a great Sunday!!
XOXO
Valori
11:04....what a great show...had to get the girls and the nephews masks from the amazing Cirqie... Honestly if you have nor seen a performance you must go.... All I can say is wow!!! And I have been to at least 6 shows....anyway hard to write and have Ross drive .... Car sick!
XOX
Valori
Woohoo.... Date night with Ross and to top it off we are going to Cirque du Soleil. The troop comes to Portland everyother year... It is our special date... Will tell you more later!
XO
Valori
Couldn't resist Sophie sunbathing. The weather has not been very nice, we all seem to be taking in the bits of sun when we can. I am looking forward to another good day to take photos of quilts and such!
Have a great day!
Valori
Yesterday Carolyn, Ross and I went out and about taking photos of some new quilts and bags....I took a bunch of photos with my IPhone and tried to post but it didn't work.....so, here are the photos from yesterday....we had a blast...
A little libations for the sunny afternoon!
New bag.....
This quilt will be a new Valori Wells Designs pattern. The pattern will also include Teague's baby quilt...
This quilt is going to be the Free Pattern...
This is it so far....hopefully I will finish the quilt on my wall today and a few other things this week. I am looking for another good day to shot....we have a storm coming in but Thursday might be ok...
Enjoy!
XOXO
Valori
Happy Easter! We had brunch at moms.... And dinner at our house.... I made these cute placemat and napkins for mom for Christmas! I silk screened the birds on them...could be a pattern - sewing card.... Anyway, have a great day!
Xoxo
Valori
Sewing fairy aka mom helping me sew up a quilt. We are having fun talking ideas and playing with fabric.
NEST has arrived.....my newest collection of fabric has hit the studio. I am now taking all of my ideas and starting to put them into fabric. With market just around the corner I have a lot to get done.
I will share the new projects as I get them done....
Have a great day!
XOXO
Valori
I have a few minutes to myself.....that doesn't happen very often. Teague is napping, Ross and the girls are out golfing with Papa and mom just left the studio after a market / all the work I have to do consultation. Take a deep breath it will all get done. That is what I remind myself - find my zone and just get it done.
Teague slept in his crib last night - first time....I think I had a harder time with it than he did. I really got used to having him in the moses basket next to me. I had to get myself out of bed and down stairs to feed him at 2 am and again at 5 am but he did good. Now, I didn't sleep well worrying too much about how he was doing. Funny! He is 5 months now and getting so big and he is my baby...goodness hard to think about. But at the same time I am so excited to see his personality grow and all the new adventures we will have as a family.
I am absolutely horrible about picking up my mail at the Post Office. I think I get there once a week. This week I had a surprise from my friend, Carmen. REALLY, REALLY, CUTE barrettes for the girls that she made out of some of my flannel that I sent her. I had to share them with you......
Liv is such a poser......she could be a model the way she smizes (smiles with her eyes).....
Carmen has a Etsy page and a blog.....check it out she is a talented girl. THANK YOU CARMEN!!!!
Now for some recent photos of the fam that we at Whippersnappers Studio.....
The kids......
LOVE this one.....
He was so excited to be naked - he just started smiling and rolling over on the blanket....so cute.
I would say this is one of my favorite photos of the bunch...it truly shows the girls personalities. Hard to get Vi without a funny look on her face.
Well, Teague has really good timing....he is awake - glad I got a chance to post....Have a great day!
XOXOX
Valori
We are living in the house of germs.....about two weeks ago Violette had a low grade fever for 4 days. !st doctor visit claimed tonsillitis.....three days later more low grade fevers and Olivia had pink eye - again - the fifth time since mid December.....so off to the doctor for the second time. Violette was diagnosed with pneumonia - mild case - but explained a lot! Olivia, yep, pink eye again but we were told that it could just be the start of the virus that Violette had. Then Ross starts to get sick......Olivia comes down with a really bad cold and low grade fever......off to the doctor for the third visit. Teague with me because he was seeming a little under the weather and I wanted to just have the doc take a quick peak. Luckily Olivia just had a really bad cold....no pneumonia. As mid week rolls around the girls are on the up swing but poor Teague now has Olivia's cold. I feel so bad for him, coughing, having me suck his nose with the blue bulb, having a hard time nursing, a low grade fever - just all around miserable. Ross seems to be on the up side of his cold and me.....well, I was doing great until yesterday when I just started feeling not quite right. Today sill just on the brink....might get sick but might get better.
AAAHHHH!! I can't wait until Spring and we are not all stuck inside the house.In the mean time working as much as I can in the studio between nursing duties......lots of projects in the works. Spring Market is coming up quick and I do not have my sample yardage yet so I am making prototypes of patterns to get the kinks worked out.
Here is a snip-it of one of the paintings of "Nest" my newest collection of fabric......
With my fingers crossed I am heading back to work in hopes of a productive day with out feeling worse.
XOXOX
Valori
With my new Della Fleece out there are questions on what to do with the fleece. You can put it on backs of quilts for a soft finish.....I personally love to just HEM IT!!! For Christmas this year I made a ton of blankets for family.....I thought that I would pass on the EASY technique or hemming your fleece.
First find some of your favorite fleece at your Local Quilt Shop.....determine the finished size of a blanket and then add 2" to each measurement. For example you want a finished size of 60" x 72" cut the fleece 62" x 74".
Sit down at your machine with a new needle and matching thread. Fold the edge of the fleece 1/2" then 1/2" again and start sewing.
Take your time folding and sewing. When you get to the end sew off the edge, cut your threads, fold the next edge 1/2" and 1/2" again. This will be thick. insert the needle at the edge and slowly stitch through the layers. Continue for all edges and you have a new blanket.......I wrap mine with a funky ribbon for a gift of cozy warmth.
I grabbed the camera today and got a couple of shots of the kids with their blankets.....
They love their blankies.... I did have to bribe Vi with jelly bellies to take the photos. She is SO two and just full of "NO" sass......
Have some fun with the fleece and a quick and easy gift.....
XOXO
Valori
Yep, I have been MIA for the past three-ish weeks.....fabric deadline. But it is off in the mail - YEAH! and I am able to breath a bit an move onto the next adventure. I am not sure why I get so self absorbed when I have these deadlines it is not like I don't know they are coming....it just seems like before I know it I only have a couple of weeks to finish. Maybe there is something about the pressure of a deadline that lights a fire under my butt!! Anyway.....with the little man around it does take me a bit longer to get things done. All the nursing and changing and such.....right now he is just so cute with his smiling and cooing. I just want to play with him.
So we finally have the Lucy and Logan patterns in house......
They turned out so cute. I gave one to my niece, Sammy, for Christmas and my brother sent me a video the other day of her playing with it.....so cute. Makes me happy to know that she likes her Lucy.
Well, I have a hungry little man so I must go......more creative things to come!
XOXO
Valori
Ross, Teague and I just returned from a 3 night stay in Manzanita, our favorite beach town on the Oregon Coast. Mom and John watched the girls while we had a little break.....wow, amazing only having one child. Ross slept in one morning and I got really nice, quite, one on one time with Teague. It was different from time at home where there is so much going on that I don't just sit and play with him. He was smiling and cooing, it was awesome.......we had nice walks on the beach - hit the weather just right - it was raining the day we got there and raining the day we left but nice while we were there. I recently got a new lens for my camera - LenseBaby - Composer. It is a different lens that is predominately out of focus but for a small sweet spot that once you focus in on then you can tilt the lens to be able to move the focus spot.....it is going to take some practice to get used to it but I did get some fun photos.
The little man......
the beach......
My cute husband!
I had time to paint.....these are the two paintings that I finished....little 6"x6" paintings - love little paintings right now........
Hope you had a great week!!!
XOXOX
Valori
Christmas Day - our Family.....we had a wonderful day! So fun to watch the girls open gifts and to spend time with the family. We had 9 (plus Teague) for dinner at our house. Love, Love, Love having people over for dinner. There is something about cooking and being with people with good food, wine, and laughter that makes my day. Must be why I got two cookbooks for Christmas and a pasta maker attachment for my Kitchen-aid. Ross wasn't too sure if that was a good gift or not. I had just made a comment how much I love cooking then opened the gift from him......think it was a good gift honey!
We are in a temperature inversion so there is a frost on everything, the light is very even and soft and it is VERY cold. I spent some time out shooting in our garden yesterday....sounds odd but here is some of the photos......I hope you had an awesome holiday!!!
Good thing that I didn't have time to cut all of the dried flowers out of the garden........I wanted the sunflowers to drop their seeds but the rest just didn't get done. Happy about that now for the great photos!!!!
My beautiful Babes.....the photo from our Christmas card.
One more thing.......I am totally embarrassed to admit that with all of the hub bub of the holidays and the travel and the sickness - yep Liv got pink eye before we went to Portland for a long weekend and Vi had a cold. Thank goodness none of us got any of the icky germs! Back to why I am embarrassed....I have not sent out the fabric from the give away at Thanksgiving!!! Now the girls have picked the numbers but I have not sent out the 16 winners!!! So....this week while we are all home - no daycare - I will email the winners and send out the packages. I am so sorry and again totally embarrassed!!!
Happy New Year!!!! Wishing you the best for the new year.......
XOXOX
Valori
Yesterday was COLD, COLD, COLD and snowing a perfect day to be inside. Ross watched football and I made Christmas gifts. I have a stack of fleece blankets for the family. So, easy to do just rollover the edge and top stitch. Then I made these owls........
I have a couple of old sweaters that I love.....not really going to wear again just love......I thought at some point I would make a bag out of them or something. I have been totally inspired by all of the cute, funky stuffies out there. Months ago I started making an owl out of fabric but never finished it. I the simplified pattern for the sweater owls. This family of eight was made from one sweater. I am giving them to my girlfriends for Christmas. Along with these rocks....
There is a Northwest magazine called Sunset and in this month's issue is a little photo of a rock that had been drawn on. I was totally inspired.....I have all of these rocks that I have collected from the beach so I thought why not try it out. It definitely works better on the lighter rocks. It was totally fun.....I thought they would be cool to just sit about......on your desk or bookshelf, something like that. I made little drawstring bags for the rocks and am going to wrap the owls in pieces of fabric that I silk screened and tie them in yarn. The ultimate homemade gift.....I do hope they like it.
I have spent most of my day today at home with Liv - she woke up this morning with Pink Eye....poor thing. Ross took her to the doctor while I did a silk screening demo for mom's quilting group. Now she is on antibiotics and getting better.
Then we just found out that our radiant floor is not working - no wonder it has been so FREAKING cold in our house. It is supposed to be -3 tonight. Hopefully Ross has reset it and got it going again. The heating people said they can't be here until tomorrow afternoon. So, I made the call to Camp Keenan, aka mom's house, to see if we could stay the night. What a pain!!
I am supposed to meet the girls for wine and knitting tonight......Ross has the kids. We will see what happens......Life is always an adventure in this house!!! I will post some photos of the wrapped gifts and I will have the girls pick my drawing winners tomorrow morning......
XOXO
Valori